Funny Facts about Muhammadiyah

Most of the so-called founders of Muhammadiyah were abdi dalem (7 out of 9, Including the most famous Ahmad Dahlan.), that is, court officials (or servants of the king, if you will) of the palace of Yogyakarta sultanate. The Geertzian divide between abangan-priyayi again got dissolved here.

(The titles of the 9 founders gave away the status : 4 have Mas 3 have Raden, 8 were Haji)(Even the one without the MAs or Raden title are possible priyayi descent)(The Kauman Area resided lots of abdi dalem and putihan)

That is why Ibu Zulfa told me that many of them were from “Blue Blood,” dara biru.

I mentioned in my book manuscript that Ahmad Dahlan were once close to the Christian missionaries working in Yogyakarta. But he was always competitive and cautious about Christianity. He modeled Muslim organization after Christian ones in order to rescue Islam in Indonesia. He said:

Islam will never disappear from the surface of the earth, but it might disappear from Indonesia, if the (Indonesian) Muslims do not stand up for it.” (A.M. Ali. The Muhammadiayh Movement p33)

It’s both universalist in terms of the profession to faith, and nationalist in terms of the struggle of local Islam. According to Burhani (p123)（Ahmad Najib Burhani, Studia Islamika Vol.12. No. 1. 2005）, Dahlan

did everything to oppose the penetration of Christianity. He even unashamedly adopted the methods of Christian missionaries.

In a sense, many of the Kauman people were in charge of the Kraton’s religious affairs/ But it is still a socio-religious movement for the poor by the middle-upper class

除了貴族，或與貴族相關的中產階級，受西方教育的穆斯林也受到吸引

There was a clear relation between the government and M.

Sosrosoegonda was the editor of the journal Boedi Oetomo and vice-chairman of the Department of Education. He helped the running of M schools. Sosrosugondo also promoted the necessity of giving religious education in schools. He proposed that in M schools religious and secular education were taught side by side.

M nenver diverged form what was laid down by royal cus

M used the Javnaese calendar (Anno Javanico, tahun Saka) along with the Arabic and Gregorian caldendars. Tahun Saka were created by Sultan Agung in the 1630s. (parasan is a five-day market week)

Although M did start recommending people use the Anno Hijrae, the Islamic calendar, in the 26th Congress in Surabaya in 1926.

As an abdi dalem pamethakan (Islamic official), Ahmad Dahlan surely particpated in the grebeg ritual. The celebration of grebeg undoubtedly contains many elements of superstition, and M may not have agreed with some of the practices observed in the grebegs…However, what is clear is that the foudning father AD remained an abdi dalem until his death. Even todya M does not codemn the grebeg. Muhammadiyah considered the mentioned practices a vehicle of Islamic propagation. Burhani 2005: p114